History Main / GoodBadTranslation

** The remake also made some new errors. Jack van Burace was originally supposed to be Jack Vam Brace, to reference his past as Knight of the Vambrace. The remake kept his mistranslated name, and then changed his former title to Knight of tthe ''Gauntlet''.

* A famous (or rather notorious) doujin HGame for ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', called ''Phoenix Drive'', was translated from Japanese into English by someone who didn't seem to be fluent in either language. The game was laughable enough as it was, but turned into [[SoBadItsGood outright hilarity and unintentional brilliance]] with such lines as "I will beat a rod till... a tank empties", "Does sperm collect to your lower part of the body in large quantities?" and "Hey, Ni-ick. Your [Penix Wright]". Even the worksafe scenes are [[NarmCharm wonderfully Narmful]].

* The 1989 Atari arcade game ''S.T.U.N. Runner'' had minimal text that needed to be translated into Japanese, and most of it could have been left in English without losing anything. Unfortunately, the Japanese fluency of whoever "translated" the game was, at best, rudimentary. By far the most infamous part of its translation is the equivalent of "insert coin." Instead of translating it as anything remotely sane, they mangled it into コインいっこ　いれる ''koin ikko ireru'' (roughly translated as "you can insert coin x1"). Okay, it's worded slightly awkwardly, but maybe it's not that bad--but then it ''keeps showing up'' everywhere "insert coin" appears in the original game. It's no exaggeration to state this is the Japanese equivalent of "all your base are belong to us," with references to and parodies of the line frequently appearing within gamer culture.

** The remake also made some new errors. Jack van Burace was originally supposed to be Jack Vam Brace, to reference his past as Knight of the Vambrace. The remake kept his mistranslated name, and then changed his former title to Knight of the ''Gauntlet''.

* The phrasebook ''The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English'' (also known as ''[[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=608757 English As She Is Spoke]]'') is famous for its mangled English phrases. The mangled phrase "to craunch a marmoset" is especially great.

*** It pops up in other franchises entirely, like in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials & Tribulations'', whose translator was apparently very enamored with the phrase.
*** ''Creator/NoahAntwiler'' named one of his D&D characters Tandem the Spoony, and then his website ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' in reference to this line and his character. He is also known as The Spoony One, or simply Spoony.

* The mysterious "Armblast" from the English dub of ''Anime/KiddyGrade'' was originally named "Armbrust" -- German for "crossbow", which fits the ThemeNaming scheme. The "correct" translation would be "Arbalest", another word for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbalest a large crossbow.]] Incidentally, Armbrust (and Armbruster) are perfectly legitimate German last names in real life.

--->Yo yo homies! Feliz Navidad. Me llamo Excel. You're my bitches!

** The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' is famous for its mistranslations, which were humorous for being obtuse and not always making a lot of sense; for example, "Eastmost penninsula is the secret," [sic] and "[[FeedItABomb Dodongo dislikes smoke.]]" The most enduring are "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this!" and "It's a secret to everybody," which have inspired many in-jokes and {{Shout Out}}s. Sadly, the Gamecube and GBA rereleases make things at least a little better.

** The original ''Metroid'' [[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/45334d_867be7a932c8484a9ebe5cba686050c6~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_560,h_249,al_c,lg_1,q_90/45334d_867be7a932c8484a9ebe5cba686050c6~mv2.webp ended]] with the {{Engrish}} message, "Great !! You fulfiled your mission. It will revive peace in space. But,it may be invaded by the other Metroid. Pray for a true peace in space!" [sic]

*** The French version didn't want to be left out, so aside from generally being full of grammatical mistakes, typos, and just plain awkward sentence structure and choices of words, some sentences are repeated for no reason; or, at the other end of the spectrum, just stop halfway through. A shining example is the Nail Bat weapon, translated as "Coup d'ongle", Nail (as in ''fingernail'') Strike.

*** ''VIII'' is downright weird when it comes to the French translation. Between the times where Squall and other characters keep BreakingTheFourthWall, item names that make no sense[[note]]the "screw" item became ''enclume'' ("anvil")[[/note]] or have been invented out of nowhere[[note]]Phoenix Downs and Tents are "MT-Psys" and "Red Krosses"[[/note]], characters and creatures that switched names[[note]]Carbuncle became ''Ahuri'' ("flabbergasted")[[/note]] and a so-bold-it's-funny case of {{Bowdlerize}}[[note]]in the original version, Ward becomes a mute after suffering from a near-fatal SlashedThroat; in the French version, he takes a vow of silence so he'll ''never'' jinx himself after Laguna talks about TemptingFate[[/note]], the whole experience feels quite strange. Nobody knows if the translators [[IndyPloy had no idea of what they were doing and winged it]] or took a ''lot'' of creativbe liberties.

** The original ended with the {{Engrish}} message, "Great !! You fulfiled your mission. It will revive peace in space. But,it may be invaded by the other Metroid. Pray for a true peace in space!" [sic]

** The planet Zebes was supposed to be "Zebeth," and is called such in some early sources. The confusion comes from the katakana rendering, "Zebesu."

** The Varia Suit in the first ''VideoGame/{{Metroid|1}}'' was actually originally meant to be called the Barrier Suit, but instead of fixing the mistake, [[ThrowItIn it was kept]]. The reasoning was apparently that since the Varia Suit can handle many different variable conditions of planets, it could also be short for "Variable Suit". [[http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Varia_Suit Wikitroid]] claims that the manual for ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' called it the "Barrier Suit"; the game itself uses "Varia".

* Among many other examples in ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'', one of the gangsters' anguished cries of pain was translated as "BARF!" For the translation of ''River City Ransom EX'', Creator/{{Atlus}} not only kept this in, but they even made a ''[[http://www.atlus.com/rcr/downloads.html wallpaper]]'' bearing the phrase.

-->-- A quote from ''Wired''[='=]s [[https://www.wired.com/2001/02/when-gamer-humor-attacks/ 2001 article]], explaining the cultural effectiveness of ''VideoGame/ZeroWing''[='=]s famous line.

** The PSX version had a boatload of profanity, using everything short of the [[ClusterFBomb F-bomb]]. Vice was particularly foul-mouthed for a "good" guy; one of the first things he says is to call the hero's sister (and his childhood friend) Kachua a "bitch", and he says "shit" practically every other sentence. Such language, though, did contribute to the game's dark and cynical [[CrapsackWorld setting]], and the worst of the swearing was largely limited to characters who were established to have short tempers and violent tendencies. The PSP remake of the game eliminated almost all the cursing in favor of a more sophisticated manner of getting their anger across, to some fans' disappointment.

* The ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' English dub has Sayaka's "You're mine, Madoka! Mine, mine, mine!" and Hitomi's "Girls can't love girls! Girls can't love girls! [[RuleOfThree Girls can't love girls!]]", both of which are in accidental LesYay moments between Madoka and Sayaka. The lines are a lot more unnatural-sounding and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment repetitive]] than the originals, but the scenes are ''supposed'' to be awkward and silly, so it works...[[MemeticMutation a little too well]].

* The title of ''Film/BicycleThieves'' was translated as ''The Bicycle Thief'' in some countries. Many consider this a better title than the original [[spoiler: since it doesn't reveal the fact that there are two thieves]].

* Karl Marx wrote poetry when he was young. One of his poems was [[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/verse/verse4.htm "The Fiddler" or "The Player"]]. It may be dark, but it's not funny. Meanwhile someone wrote [[http://www.scribd.com/doc/38017685/Was-Karl-Marx-a-Satanist a religious tract]] alleging Marx was a Satanist, in which a bit from the poem was "translated":

* In an episode of ''Rude Awakening'', Dave said he had to chase Christian Slater down the street. This was translated to Hebrew as "A Christian slate-layer".

** Mexico's Yucatan peninsula has a similar story, that "Yucatan" is Mayan for "I don't understand." Other sources it's a garbling of the Nahuatl name "Yocatlan."

* The Russian-developed point-and-click adventure game, ''Midnight Nowhere'', features numerous bizarre and hilarious lines when looking at the scenery. For example, looking at a stethoscope on a [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal dead doctor's desk]] will produce the line, "He's probably lying here to show off. It's like he's saying, 'I'm not just wearing my pants out, I've got medical training!'". It's all rendered in voiced, well-emoted English.

* The ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' English dub has Sayaka's "You're [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal mine, Madoka! Mine, mine, mine!]]" and Hitomi's "Girls can't love girls! Girls can't love girls! [[RuleOfThree Girls can't love girls!]]", both of which are in accidental LesYay moments between Madoka and Sayaka. The lines are a lot more unnatural-sounding and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment repetitive]] than the originals, but the scenes are ''supposed'' to be awkward and silly, so it works...[[MemeticMutation a little too well]].

[[caption-width-right:320:It's incredibly awkward and goofy, but one can't deny that's part of the fun.]]

* Hot Limit, an [[BlindIdiotTranslation Italo-Engrish]] Eurobeat cover of a J-Rock song. "Yo say! Summer love will stimulate my heart tonight. Mysterious mermaid, barefoot all alone. Wishing, revealing. It's the fruit I want to eat. Precious love is always eating UP MY HEART!" The band itself is Italian and can't speak English either, leading to it also being known by its most famous {{Mondegreen}}, "We Drink Ritalin".

* There is a myth that, when James Cook was exploring Australia, he came across a strange, jumping animal with huge feet and a large tail. Upon describing it to a native and asking what it was, he supposedly received the answer "Kangaroo". Assuming that was the name of the animal, he dutifully recorded it in his survey report, not knowing that it was native-speak for "I can't understand you." Unfortunately, this myth was debunked recently by a linguist researching that native language. The myth was prominently featured in the movie ''Film/{{Arrival}}'', including the fact that it's not true.

*** ''VIII'' is downright weird when it comes to the French translation. Between the times where Squall and other characters keep BreakingTheFourthWall, item names that make no sense[[note]]the "screw" item became ''enclume'' ("anvil")[[/note]] or have been invented out of nowhere[[note]]Phoenix Downs are "MT-Psys"[[/note]], characters that switched titles and a so-bold-it's-funny case of {{Bowdlerize}}[[note]]in the original version, Ward becomes a mute after suffering from a near-fatal SlashedThroat; in the French version, he takes a vow of silence so he'll ''never'' jinx himself after Laguna talks about TemptingFate[[/note]], the whole experience feels quite strange.

*** The French version didn't want to be left out, so aside from generally being full of grammatical mistakes, typos, and just plain awkward sentence structure and choices of words, some sentences are repeated for no reason; or, at the other end of the spectrum, just stop halfway through.

*** ''VIII'' is downright weird when it comes to the French translation. Between the times where Squall and other characters keep BreakingTheFourthWall, item names that make no sense (for example, the "screw" item became ''enclume'' ("anvil")) or have been invented out of nowhere (Phoenix Downs are "MT-Psys"), ''characters'' that switched titles, etc., the whole experience feels quite strange.

* In the original French version of Cinderella, the slipper was ''vair'' (fur from squirrels). When the tale got translated to English, this was mistaken as ''verre'' (glass).

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'': "Girls do their best now and are preparing. Please watch warmly until it is ready."

* ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'': "CANADA is greatest country."

** Getting bonus experience points after a battle results in the phrase "Great! He is an uncanny fellow!" appearing on the stats screen. This doesn't happen from any other Shuffle Time result.

* ''VideoGame/Persona3'' mistranslated "Ceylon tea" (as in, tea from Sri Lanka) as "[[Franchise/BattlestarGalactica Cylon]] Tea", which made people giggle. Considering Atlus USA's penchant for minor gags and shoutouts in its ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' translations, however, it was very likely intentional.

** Also in ''Link's Awakening'', the "Bucket Mouse" answering the phone in Old Man Ulrira's house [[https://www.glitterberri.com/links-awakening/staff-questionnaire/ is actually meant to be a reference to the fishing shop Bucketmouth in Osaka, Japan.]] But this inside joke would go over English speakers' heads, and the idea of a mouse living in a bucket somewhere on Koholint Island is pretty amusing in its own right.

** The last boss of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'''s final form is named [=DethI=], which is a BlindIdiotTranslation of Death Eye. However, because supplementary material had the name written down that way (with the uppercase "i" looking almost exactly like a lowercase "L"), the nickname "Dethl" (with a lowercase "L") has become a fan-accepted version of his name.

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